Revell 1/35 Opel Kadett K38 saloon

[Ned]

Well now, I've been desperate to get started on my Miniart Panzer III Ausf B for weeks, so I'm really pleased to finally be starting this little Opel Kadett car. I don't know what happened either!

I think @Phil1960 and his Citroen are to blame, alongside my fear of tackling any of the 'full interior' tank kits that I can't resist buying. So my first 'full interior' will be a few seats, a steering wheel, and a few pedals.

It looks to be a fun little thing to build, let's hope I get to step 20 - glueing the roof on and sealing up the interior - without too much anguish

 

It doesn't look very sporty.

 

129 parts according to the box. Some of it looks very fragile, and lots of potential crookedness if the panels don't go together well.

There's a nice little engine that I might need to show off.

 

The front axle looks too narrow on this picture. We shall see!

 

I hate rubber tyres, so I've got these. They're meant for an ICM kit but I'm hoping that they fit OK.

[Milan Mynar]

Good kit, originally made by ICM, repackaged by Revell. I look forward to your build.

[Phil1960]

Hi Ned, nice choice! Some times ago I saw vintage Film on Us Mp in a German town just in july 1945 in a such Opel. It was very intersting with olive drab camo an a lot of white stars so I’ll follow you with great interest👌

Ciao Filippo

[Geo1966]

Interesting project Ned.

 

My first car in 1985 was an Opel Kaddett, but it looked a bit different to this 😆

 

George

[Ned]

Here's a quick update. After a couple of sessions I have an engine that is almost complete:

 

A firewall with a very elegant battery tray, the floorpan with the pedals and a few other bits in place (the gearstick broke, so I've replaced it with copper wire), and the cab sides:

Not a lot! Still at that everything-depends-on-something-else stage.

The engine is well detailed and matches up with photographs. I'd love to have a go at adding plug leads and some wiring, but it's so small. I'll have a go, because it's clear enough where everything should go.

It will start moving when I've painted the floor and can then fix the firewall in place. The bodywork all hangs off getting that right.

I haven't looked at my aftermarket tyres yet, but as @Milan Mynar has pointed out, this was an ICM kit (confirmed by the ICM logo on the sprues) which is what they were intended for.

Having fun. The carpet monster has yet to make an appearance, but I think that he's going to like the door handles and window winders.

 

[Ned]

Life has been getting in the way, but I managed an hour this morning before the heat became unbearable. The seats and the door panels are done, so I can move forward a bit now.

Assembly so far has been very fiddly, there's a lot that could go wrong further down the line if the firewall and A posts aren't got right, but it all looks square. It's about a 50/50 between following the instructions and doing it in a more manageable order.

I need to get the instrument panel and steering column painted and fitted, and then see how many bits I can break the steering wheel rim into getting it off the sprue. 

The AM tyres are a really tight fit on the rims, they're on and they're staying on

The engine is halfway done. I wanted to have a go at detailing it, but it's all just too small for my sausage fingers. I'll have a better idea of how much is visible when the front axle is on.

 

Fun, challenging build so far, just wish that I had more time to work on it. My son is about to finish school so that should give me more time in the mornings before work.

[Ned]

Ugh! Covid has me in it's loving grasp! Day 5 and I still feel rough as a badger. I've been self-isolating in the front room with nothing but a TV and an Xbox for company for 4 days now, but finally can see again so I've done a little bit this afternoon.

The interior just needs a steering wheel (quite an important feature) and it's done. The dash has two decals and matches the pictures that I can see.

 

As I thought, the front track is way too narrow, the wheels sit under the arches rather than in them, if that makes sense. It just needs some plastic discs between the drums and wheels and it'll be OK.

It's not easy to photograph, best seen by comparing the width of the rear (darker grey) rear axle with the front. It really obvious on the photograph of a finished model on the instruction sheet.

The real car has an unusual setup taken from the racing cars of the time, with the springs and shock absorbers in a cylindrical container that was part of the hub. Something to do with improving the handling by reducing unsprung mass. I read all about it but am too addled to find it again tonight  it clearly didn't catch on. I think I read that too much road dust got through the seals and the internal gubbins wore out too quickly as a result.

 

 

[Ned]

Greetings!

Covid has knocked me for six, so I haven't felt like doing anything, I'm just starting to come around a bit now, three weeks after the symptoms started. I haven't been out running for 3 weeks, but I did spend all afternoon walking around Yorkshire Wildlife Park yesterday (and got a sunburned neck as a result!) so it might be time for a trot out.

Not much building has been happening, but I am just about to stick the roof on and seal the interior away for ever more, so I thought that I'd post about it

I'm sure that a lot of it is down to Covid fog, but I've really fallen out with the kit because the body panels just don't fit nicely enough. Anyone reading this and building one take note - the rear quarters need trimming so that they can be squeezed in, otherwise the rear panel is just too narrow to get a nice join.

 

but it's getting there, soon to move on past the one-thing-at-time slowdown that I'm in the middle of.

Next up will be filling the nasty joins in the roof, and then I can primer the shell and get into the last stages.

 

 

[Ned]

I've been a bit rubbish at updating this, mainly because it has just been the odd 10 minutes now and then working on it. I've painted it with Vallejo Dunkelgrau, which is almost black, much darker than it has come out here. I painted it once, decided it was too dark to work with, primered it again and then thought "what the hell, everyone says dunkelgelb was really dark" and did it with the same colour. I'm a bit worried that I'll end up with this dark, boring little car, but we will see. I tried pre-shading, the bottom half has NATO black over the almost white primer, but it barely shows as I do tend to overdo the top coat.

Adding spacers to the front wheels was a good idea, I wish I'd gone wider.

Looking at the pictures now I can see that I forgot to rescribe the front edge of the doors, which is really going to annoy me now. Hopefully panel liner will save the day.

Daily updates from now until completion!

[Ned]

Well, so much for daily updates! It's all @Bertie McBoatface's fault, he made me start my MiniArt Panzer before this was finished. I'm a bit non-plussed by this little car though. It's not a tank. It does not drive over fields or have crew climbing all over it so I can't weather it like a tank. But then it will just be a small grey lump. I'll have to explore lightening it up with a dusty wash. It's just sat on my desk now, looking at me sadly.

[Ned]

Dearie me, I just can't get the time to push this along, it's all 10 minutes here and there. I've tried to add a little bit of wear here and there (the front mudguard where I accidentally nicked it while cleaning it up)  and I suppose it's ready for the decals.

I've put the numberplates on tonight, so I don't really have any excuse now...

[Ned]

This has been looking accusingly at me for the last few months, so I summoned enough energy to finish it off.

Revell release of an ICM kit, OOTB other than replacing the rubber tyres with FC Model Trend printed ones. The kit was ok, but I think that they overcomplicated it around the front quarter panels and firewall, making a good fit hard to achieve. Some nasty joins too over the roof above the front and rear screens.

Vallejo Dunkelgrau with some Mig pigments to weather it.

It's a Luftwaffe car from North France, so I was trying to give it a dusty look (remembering what my Beetle would look like after a few days parked in a Glastonbury field) but I got it far too dark so it just looks likes any old Panzer grey vehicle from my collection.

The headlights are all googly and look stuck on (because they are!) rather than part of the car. I also struggled with the windows through lack of experience so they're a bit grubby on the inside.

One half of the bonnet is just Maskol-ed on because I intended to glue it open after painting, but nah, it's finished

 

 

 

 

 

Look inside! I spent hours over that interior!

 

 

It is teeny-tiny.

 

Onwards! I have a half-track to finish!